In the production of textile fabrics, e.g. toweling and the like, it is a common practice to form a fabric having a nap zone bordered along at least one edge by a nap-free zone along which a stitch seam may be formed in a subsequent operation.
In transporting fabric pieces of this type to the sewing machine at which the stitched seam is to be formed, it is desirable to have the junction between the nap free zone and the nap zone aligned with the transport direction and, more accurately, in alignment with the desired transport path so that the seam, when it is ultimately formed, will exactly parallel this junction and the nap zone.
In practice, the nap free zone may vary in width along its length and if only the fabric edge is properly aligned with the transport path, the seam, while being parallel to the fabric edge, will appear to be irregularly spaced from the nap zone and hence the junction
The German Auslegeschrift No. 21 30 813 describes an apparatus for compensating warping of edges of the fabric and alignment of the latter by means of edge sensors.
Although this apparatus has been proven useful in practice it has been found that the napless zone cannot be provided in an exact parallel manner to the edge portion of the nap zone. Consequently, the napless portion of the fabric will not have uniform width thus leading to irregular border portions.